News & Events

News and Events

August 28, 2008

I know, I'll do a big update to my website. What could possibly go wrong?

Okay, give me a few days to fix this mess.

In the meantime, I have a session this week for the new Bonnie Hunt show, and a TV pilot the week after that. Fall is here. Well, the TV season anyway.

August 16, 2008

What happened to summer? In the blink of an eye, fall is back. I've been sequestered in the studio working on a myriad of projects. Peter Himmelman, Alan Ett, Trevor Howard, Jamie Glaser, Chaka, Russ Miller, Gemini, DJ3, all have been getting their funky tracks on.

May 1st, 2008

George with Ernie Fields Jr. on American Idol (David Archuleta singing "Sweet Caroline")

Wow, you guys have really good eyesight. I got so many emails from friends that saw me for the one second I was visible on American Idol this week. We had a great time backing up the singers for Neil Diamond week. I also played in the Orchestra for the big Idol Gives Back show at the Kodak. If you have a chance to see that, there were some amazing performances.

This year got off to a really nice start. Concerts with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Don Rickles, Frankie Avalon and Frankie Valli. Sessions for the film "Kung Fu Panda", Peter Himmelman's latest CD, an MTV show,(I forget the title), and sessions with Scott Liggett and Jeff Danna. We're rehearsing with Paige Adkins for the Aruba Jazz Festival,(Russ Miller is the MD), which is coming up next month. And I've started working with guitarist Jay Soto. We'll be appearing at several jazz festivals this summer, including Sacramento, Big Bear, Paso Robles, Palm Springs, Hyatt Newporter, and all three weekends of the Catalina Jazz Festival. He's a great player, so if you get a chance, check him out.

I'm filming a new DVD for beginning sax students. Should be out in a couple of months, and really cover the fundamentals for starting out.

I'm off to my Basketball league game...don't ask. It ain't pretty

January 5th, 2008

Happy New Year! So many things hitting at once. Just a couple to tell you about:

If you're around the Los Angeles area today, and you're up late, I'll be on the Mark Isler show on 790 KABC AM at midnight. Okay so I guess technically that would make it the 6th. Late Saturday. Whatever. Should be fun.

I'm performing at the NAMM show again this year. I'll be playing for the Yamaha Dealer show on Friday the 18th. It's always a crazy, star studded event. Can't wait to see who's going to perform this year. And during the day I'll be playing with Patrick McClure, a great young piano player.

In the meantime I'm working with a cool new Internet company. More on that soon.

The tribute to Smokey Robinson will air in Los Angeles on NBC on the 26th at 3pm. Set your Tivo's, there were some great performances.

How are your New Year's Resolutions coming along? I've been a week without caffeine. Besides falling asleep constantly, and wanting to kill someone, it's great.

It's raining today, be safe out there!

December 12, 2007

Well, I'm not sure where to begin. I had such a fantastic time in the UK. First off, the Yamaha crew, led by Leanne Hassan, made sure that I got everywhere I needed to get to. And they made sure everything was right when I got there. I had so much fun with both the clinics and the live shows. So the first huge THANK YOU goes to the wonderful people at YamahaUK: Leanne, Ian, Scott, Hiroshi, Steven, Julian, Charles, Angela, and everyone else that made this trip such a pleasure to be a part of.

Yeah, the chin hair is already gone. It was getting really itchy by the time I got to Edinburgh. So off it came.

Working with Laurence, Ian, and Gareth was just a pleasure. I knew 8 bars into our only rehearsal that this would be easy. They all played great, and made my job a piece o' cake. As always in a jazz setting, there were some wonderful, spontaneous, musical surprises. Our first gig was at the Bull's Head in London, continuous jazz since 1949!!

The clinics were full of students asking very thoughtful questions, and the shows were just celebrations. Although the sax player's left hand in the pic below is horrible. Get that hand back on the keys!!

Not that there weren't some challenges that we had to face. My tenor sax took a nasty spill in the back of the van. I was performing at the Dawkes Memorial Concert that evening, sharing the stage with Ernie Watts. Not a gig you want to go into with your horn a mess. Thanks Steven, for saving the day. He pulled out his tools, worked on my horn for a couple of hours in his hotel room, and had me up and running for the concert. By the way, the show was fantastic, just great vibes through the whole night.

Every town had its own cool vibe. I had a great day hanging with Rob Buckland and his students at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, the UK's largest and most active Saxophone programme. I can't say enough about London: the clinic at Chappell's, and the shows at both the Bull's Head and Octave were all packed. It's always great to see my friends from Sax.co, and we had another packed clinic and show down in Brighton. Edinburgh is just beautiful. Here's what the Edinburgh Herald had to say about our show...

Here's a funny pic from one of the They Might Be Giants shows...

Had a great session with Jeff Danna when I got back to town. I'll try to post a sample of the session when I get a chance.

Pics from Europe. Pictures by Alain Guizard. Robin Lemesurier on guitar.

______________________________________________________________________

9-20-07

Hello my friends,

A couple of new seasons, Fall and Television. Many fires burning at once, so here we go...

I'm in Pasadena this week for the UNCF fundraiser, which is a tribute to Smokey Robinson. Like last year's tribute to Aretha Franklin, this is being filmed, will have a multitude of stars showing up to sing, and will be huge fun for me. I'm back in the section with my friends Ernie Fields Jr., Harry Kim, and Dan Fornero. We had our first read through today, and there's so much great music in Smokey's book!

Do you have Russ Miller's CD, Arrival? Get it, it's a really great project, and I am so proud to be a part of it.

I'm going back to the UK! I'll be in England and Scotland between Nov. 20th and Dec. 1st, performing a number of clinics and concerts. I'll post more specific dates on this tour soon.

We haven't talked about Wales, have we? I went to Wales a couple of months ago with Donny Osmond, to film a concert DVD there. First off, Donny sings his ass off, and he's a great, very cool hang. I don't think I've ever laughed more on tour with someone. Not that we didn't have our challenges. Due to a snafu at Immigration we had no guitar player until the evening of the gig, and it poured rain! But I've been lucky to perform with artists that have amazing fans. We're talking about people standing out in the rain for 2 days. The attendance for the concert was really great. We don't go out in LA if it rains. Donny had thousands of screaming fans ready to support him, and he delivered an amazing show. I'll let you know when the DVD comes out. I hope to do some more concerts with Donny sometime soon.

Planet Hollywood is building a casino? With a shopping mall? Who knew? I know because I was at Alan Ett music last week working with Scott Liggett. They're putting together a laser show in the mall, so we were recording different music segments for it. Jim McMillen did some great arrangements. If you see the show, you'll know who's playing sax.

Peter Himmelman has a new CD out, titled The Pigeons Couldn't Sleep. I played sax and did some horn arranging on it. I actually cut some of the parts when I was in Paris last year, and sent them back over. Peter was the composer on "Judging Amy", and we worked together years ago when he had me play on his film score for "Souler Opposites." If you get the chance, check Peter out. He's a great writer, and I think you'll really like his stuff.

I performed with the Temptations and the Four Tops in August. Great show, great music. I haven't played a show with that many horn parts in a long time. I slept good the next day.

Played on America's Got Talent this summer. This was challenging, because the acts were so varied, we went through many styles of music for each show.

Well, I've got to shed some Piccolo for this week. C'mon, you know the part on "Tears of a Clown"! Have a great, safe fall, and I'll post again soon. Maybe some pics from the show. Probably not... Thanks for the support! ,g

5-15-07

Had a great time this last weekend performing with Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, and Fabian. It's a great lesson to see these guys who have been performing for about 50 years each. Consumate professionals, they all got up on stage and killed. Which is no small feat when you've had a hip replacement (Fabian). I've done alot of shows with Frankie, including the night he climbed on stage at the Hilton while Barry was singing "Venus." An unbelievable moment. He's always one of the coolest, and it's always great fun hanging out with his son Frank Jr., and Ray Kinetski, Frankie's MD. I had some of my usual guys in the horn section: Pap, Jorgenson, Reilly, Higgins, so we held up our end. If you see "the Golden Boys" show advertised somewhere around you, go check it out. You'll see some big legends put on a great show.

On to the stars of tomorrow. I'll be performing in the band for the American Idol finale at the Kodak theater next week. I have no idea who's performing, and I've used up my ticket allotment, so don't ask. Whatever happens, you can count on alot of last minute changes as the show gets closer. I think that's one of Ricky Minor's strongest traits, that he can be in the middle of this Idol storm, and keep everyone cool and on track. Whatever happens, it will be great fun for me to hang out in the horn section with my friends.

I need to say thanks for all of the nice emails you sent regarding the latest Barry Manilow DVD, "First and Farewell". That tour was the start of a very special time, and that night at Staples was one I will never forget. Anytime you get a chance to share the stage with Barry Manilow and Dave Koz, you know great music will be flying all over the place. I am very proud for any small part I played in contributing to support Barry. I talked about this when I blogged the tour, but it's worth mentioning again. The band Barry put together are some of the finest musicians you will find anywhere, and they laid down an incredible groove that night. Well, everynight.

Speaking of DVD's, I've just gotten word that Johnny Hallyday has released the concert recorded at LaCigale in Paris last December. It was hot, sweaty, small, packed, the perfect setting for some old school rock n' roll. I've been fortunate in my career to be on stage with performers that kick my ass every night, and Johnny was one of them. Trying to match his energy on stage took me places I hadn't been, like on my back in the audience during my solo. I'm talking to the label reps now to see if I can get some of the DVD's for release on my website. I'll keep you posted.

England...

What an amazing week this was. We zipped around doing clinics and masterclasses at Universities and big stores all over the UK. My support crew was the best. Charles Bozon, Ian Frankland, Stephen Adcock, and Leanne Hassan. They all made sure I got to the stage, and had a diet coke close by. I got to meet some really great people, and hopefully I shared some concepts that they will find helpful. I would never have enough space to list all the great stops we made, but here are a few in the order we hit them: Dawkes Music was a great store, and they have their whole second story stuffed with little bits and pieces for every instrument imaginable! The Yamaha stores in both Canterbury and London were great. Then we went to Sax.co.uk in Farningham. Unbelievable! They have about 300 saxes on display in a beautiful store, with a great repair staff, and great little studios to try every horn. (Thanks guys for the great dinner). The Royal Academy of Music in London was a stop that none of us will ever forget. Then we zipped up to the Birmingham Conservatoire for a masterclass there. We ended our week playing with the Chethams Big Band, in conjunction with Dawsons Music Store. A great band, and I had a great time jamming with the students during my clinics. The week went by way too fast. Thank you to all the nice people who have sent me emails since returning home. I can't talk about it yet, but I hope to get back over there in the not too distant future.

Tomorrow I head down to the Cerritos Performing Arts Center for Yamaha's annual corporate kick-off show. They put on a big show for all the employees, and they've got a great band to back up the singers coming in. I can't talk about who's coming, 'cause it's a big surprise, but the incredible Nathan East is once again leading the band, with JR Robinson on drums. Plus I get to see my friend Amy Keys singing back-up, we haven't seen each other since Paris.

Now, for all of those who keep complaining about me not performing in Los Angeles. I'm happy to announce that in conjunction with 94.7 the WAVE, I'll be appearing at iCugini in Santa Monica during their Sunday brunch jazz series. This last Sunday was ridiculous fun, the great comedian Sinbad came in with his family. Including his beautiful daughter Paige Bryant, who's next CD I'm working on, which is being produced by our friend Chaka. So you know it's gonna' be funky as hell (or you can check out the last Shady Grady CD if you don't believe me). If you're in the area, come on down and hang out as we start trying out new songs for the next CD.

Yes, I'm working on my new CD.

I'm very honored to be on the cover, and have a feature article in the latest edition of Saxophone Journal. I had a wonderful discussion with Thomas Erdmann, and it was great fun covering all the topics we did. Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

Well, I've got to go find a decent reed for tomorrow. Thanks for all the support, it's always appreciated, and I look forward to seeing you all soon...


		News and Events August 28, 2008 I know, I'll do a big update to my website. What could possibly go wrong? Okay, give me a few days to fix this mess. In the meantime, I have a session this week for the new Bonnie Hunt show, and a TV pilot the week after that. Fall is here. Well, the TV season anyway. g August 16, 2008 What happened to summer? In the blink of an eye, fall is back. I've been sequestered in the studio working on a myriad of projects. Peter Himmelman, Alan Ett, Trevor Howard, Jamie Glaser, Chaka, Russ Miller, Gemini, DJ3, all have been getting their funky tracks on. May 1st, 2008 George with Ernie Fields Jr. on American Idol (David Archuleta singing "Sweet Caroline") Wow, you guys have really good eyesight. I got so many emails from friends that saw me for the one second I was visible on American Idol this week. We had a great time backing up the singers for Neil Diamond week. I also played in the Orchestra for the big Idol Gives Back show at the Kodak. If you have a chance to see that, there were some amazing performances. This year got off to a really nice start. Concerts with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Don Rickles, Frankie Avalon and Frankie Valli. Sessions for the film "Kung Fu Panda", Peter Himmelman's latest CD, an MTV show,(I forget the title), and sessions with Scott Liggett and Jeff Danna. We're rehearsing with Paige Adkins for the Aruba Jazz Festival,(Russ Miller is the MD), which is coming up next month. And I've started working with guitarist Jay Soto. We'll be appearing at several jazz festivals this summer, including Sacramento, Big Bear, Paso Robles, Palm Springs, Hyatt Newporter, and all three weekends of the Catalina Jazz Festival. He's a great player, so if you get a chance, check him out. I'm filming a new DVD for beginning sax students. Should be out in a couple of months, and really cover the fundamentals for starting out. I'm off to my Basketball league game...don't ask. It ain't pretty g January 5th, 2008 Happy New Year! So many things hitting at once. Just a couple to tell you about: If you're around the Los Angeles area today, and you're up late, I'll be on the Mark Isler show on 790 KABC AM at midnight. Okay so I guess technically that would make it the 6th. Late Saturday. Whatever. Should be fun. I'm performing at the NAMM show again this year. I'll be playing for the Yamaha Dealer show on Friday the 18th. It's always a crazy, star studded event. Can't wait to see who's going to perform this year. And during the day I'll be playing with Patrick McClure, a great young piano player. In the meantime I'm working with a cool new Internet company. More on that soon. The tribute to Smokey Robinson will air in Los Angeles on NBC on the 26th at 3pm. Set your Tivo's, there were some great performances. How are your New Year's Resolutions coming along? I've been a week without caffeine. Besides falling asleep constantly, and wanting to kill someone, it's great. It's raining today, be safe out there! g December 12, 2007 Well, I'm not sure where to begin. I had such a fantastic time in the UK. First off, the Yamaha crew, led by Leanne Hassan, made sure that I got everywhere I needed to get to. And they made sure everything was right when I got there. I had so much fun with both the clinics and the live shows. So the first huge THANK YOU goes to the wonderful people at YamahaUK: Leanne, Ian, Scott, Hiroshi, Steven, Julian, Charles, Angela, and everyone else that made this trip such a pleasure to be a part of. Yeah, the chin hair is already gone. It was getting really itchy by the time I got to Edinburgh. So off it came. Working with Laurence, Ian, and Gareth was just a pleasure. I knew 8 bars into our only rehearsal that this would be easy. They all played great, and made my job a piece o' cake. As always in a jazz setting, there were some wonderful, spontaneous, musical surprises. Our first gig was at the Bull's Head in London, continuous jazz since 1949!! The clinics were full of students asking very thoughtful questions, and the shows were just celebrations. Although the sax player's left hand in the pic below is horrible. Get that hand back on the keys!! Not that there weren't some challenges that we had to face. My tenor sax took a nasty spill in the back of the van. I was performing at the Dawkes Memorial Concert that evening, sharing the stage with Ernie Watts. Not a gig you want to go into with your horn a mess. Thanks Steven, for saving the day. He pulled out his tools, worked on my horn for a couple of hours in his hotel room, and had me up and running for the concert. By the way, the show was fantastic, just great vibes through the whole night. Every town had its own cool vibe. I had a great day hanging with Rob Buckland and his students at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, the UK's largest and most active Saxophone programme. I can't say enough about London: the clinic at Chappell's, and the shows at both the Bull's Head and Octave were all packed. It's always great to see my friends from Sax.co, and we had another packed clinic and show down in Brighton. Edinburgh is just beautiful. Here's what the Edinburgh Herald had to say about our show... Here's a funny pic from one of the They Might Be Giants shows... Had a great session with Jeff Danna when I got back to town. I'll try to post a sample of the session when I get a chance. Pics from Europe. Pictures by Alain Guizard. Robin Lemesurier on guitar. ______________________________________________________________________ 9-20-07 Hello my friends, A couple of new seasons, Fall and Television. Many fires burning at once, so here we go... I'm in Pasadena this week for the UNCF fundraiser, which is a tribute to Smokey Robinson. Like last year's tribute to Aretha Franklin, this is being filmed, will have a multitude of stars showing up to sing, and will be huge fun for me. I'm back in the section with my friends Ernie Fields Jr., Harry Kim, and Dan Fornero. We had our first read through today, and there's so much great music in Smokey's book! Do you have Russ Miller's CD, Arrival? Get it, it's a really great project, and I am so proud to be a part of it. I'm going back to the UK! I'll be in England and Scotland between Nov. 20th and Dec. 1st, performing a number of clinics and concerts. I'll post more specific dates on this tour soon. We haven't talked about Wales, have we? I went to Wales a couple of months ago with Donny Osmond, to film a concert DVD there. First off, Donny sings his ass off, and he's a great, very cool hang. I don't think I've ever laughed more on tour with someone. Not that we didn't have our challenges. Due to a snafu at Immigration we had no guitar player until the evening of the gig, and it poured rain! But I've been lucky to perform with artists that have amazing fans. We're talking about people standing out in the rain for 2 days. The attendance for the concert was really great. We don't go out in LA if it rains. Donny had thousands of screaming fans ready to support him, and he delivered an amazing show. I'll let you know when the DVD comes out. I hope to do some more concerts with Donny sometime soon. Planet Hollywood is building a casino? With a shopping mall? Who knew? I know because I was at Alan Ett music last week working with Scott Liggett. They're putting together a laser show in the mall, so we were recording different music segments for it. Jim McMillen did some great arrangements. If you see the show, you'll know who's playing sax. Peter Himmelman has a new CD out, titled The Pigeons Couldn't Sleep. I played sax and did some horn arranging on it. I actually cut some of the parts when I was in Paris last year, and sent them back over. Peter was the composer on "Judging Amy", and we worked together years ago when he had me play on his film score for "Souler Opposites." If you get the chance, check Peter out. He's a great writer, and I think you'll really like his stuff. I performed with the Temptations and the Four Tops in August. Great show, great music. I haven't played a show with that many horn parts in a long time. I slept good the next day. Played on America's Got Talent this summer. This was challenging, because the acts were so varied, we went through many styles of music for each show. Well, I've got to shed some Piccolo for this week. C'mon, you know the part on "Tears of a Clown"! Have a great, safe fall, and I'll post again soon. Maybe some pics from the show. Probably not... Thanks for the support! ,g 5-15-07 Had a great time this last weekend performing with Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, and Fabian. It's a great lesson to see these guys who have been performing for about 50 years each. Consumate professionals, they all got up on stage and killed. Which is no small feat when you've had a hip replacement (Fabian). I've done alot of shows with Frankie, including the night he climbed on stage at the Hilton while Barry was singing "Venus." An unbelievable moment. He's always one of the coolest, and it's always great fun hanging out with his son Frank Jr., and Ray Kinetski, Frankie's MD. I had some of my usual guys in the horn section: Pap, Jorgenson, Reilly, Higgins, so we held up our end. If you see "the Golden Boys" show advertised somewhere around you, go check it out. You'll see some big legends put on a great show. On to the stars of tomorrow. I'll be performing in the band for the American Idol finale at the Kodak theater next week. I have no idea who's performing, and I've used up my ticket allotment, so don't ask. Whatever happens, you can count on alot of last minute changes as the show gets closer. I think that's one of Ricky Minor's strongest traits, that he can be in the middle of this Idol storm, and keep everyone cool and on track. Whatever happens, it will be great fun for me to hang out in the horn section with my friends. I need to say thanks for all of the nice emails you sent regarding the latest Barry Manilow DVD, "First and Farewell". That tour was the start of a very special time, and that night at Staples was one I will never forget. Anytime you get a chance to share the stage with Barry Manilow and Dave Koz, you know great music will be flying all over the place. I am very proud for any small part I played in contributing to support Barry. I talked about this when I blogged the tour, but it's worth mentioning again. The band Barry put together are some of the finest musicians you will find anywhere, and they laid down an incredible groove that night. Well, everynight. Speaking of DVD's, I've just gotten word that Johnny Hallyday has released the concert recorded at LaCigale in Paris last December. It was hot, sweaty, small, packed, the perfect setting for some old school rock n' roll. I've been fortunate in my career to be on stage with performers that kick my ass every night, and Johnny was one of them. Trying to match his energy on stage took me places I hadn't been, like on my back in the audience during my solo. I'm talking to the label reps now to see if I can get some of the DVD's for release on my website. I'll keep you posted. England... What an amazing week this was. We zipped around doing clinics and masterclasses at Universities and big stores all over the UK. My support crew was the best. Charles Bozon, Ian Frankland, Stephen Adcock, and Leanne Hassan. They all made sure I got to the stage, and had a diet coke close by. I got to meet some really great people, and hopefully I shared some concepts that they will find helpful. I would never have enough space to list all the great stops we made, but here are a few in the order we hit them: Dawkes Music was a great store, and they have their whole second story stuffed with little bits and pieces for every instrument imaginable! The Yamaha stores in both Canterbury and London were great. Then we went to Sax.co.uk in Farningham. Unbelievable! They have about 300 saxes on display in a beautiful store, with a great repair staff, and great little studios to try every horn. (Thanks guys for the great dinner). The Royal Academy of Music in London was a stop that none of us will ever forget. Then we zipped up to the Birmingham Conservatoire for a masterclass there. We ended our week playing with the Chethams Big Band, in conjunction with Dawsons Music Store. A great band, and I had a great time jamming with the students during my clinics. The week went by way too fast. Thank you to all the nice people who have sent me emails since returning home. I can't talk about it yet, but I hope to get back over there in the not too distant future. Tomorrow I head down to the Cerritos Performing Arts Center for Yamaha's annual corporate kick-off show. They put on a big show for all the employees, and they've got a great band to back up the singers coming in. I can't talk about who's coming, 'cause it's a big surprise, but the incredible Nathan East is once again leading the band, with JR Robinson on drums. Plus I get to see my friend Amy Keys singing back-up, we haven't seen each other since Paris. Now, for all of those who keep complaining about me not performing in Los Angeles. I'm happy to announce that in conjunction with 94.7 the WAVE, I'll be appearing at iCugini in Santa Monica during their Sunday brunch jazz series. This last Sunday was ridiculous fun, the great comedian Sinbad came in with his family. Including his beautiful daughter Paige Bryant, who's next CD I'm working on, which is being produced by our friend Chaka. So you know it's gonna' be funky as hell (or you can check out the last Shady Grady CD if you don't believe me). If you're in the area, come on down and hang out as we start trying out new songs for the next CD. Yes, I'm working on my new CD. I'm very honored to be on the cover, and have a feature article in the latest edition of Saxophone Journal. I had a wonderful discussion with Thomas Erdmann, and it was great fun covering all the topics we did. Thanks guys, I appreciate it. Well, I've got to go find a decent reed for tomorrow. Thanks for all the support, it's always appreciated, and I look forward to seeing you all soon... g
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